Chapter 3: The Switchblade, the Neighbor, the Fan
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"So you're a gunrunner and you fix stolen cars." Matt stated.
"Yep." K replied, putting another lump of sugar in his coffee.
"How do you hold up? Don't you have a day job?"
"Nah, there's always business." K smiled. "There's always someone's 'borrowed' car that needs a new paint job."
"Well, at least the world didn't change while I was gone." Matt muttered.
"What was that?" K lifted one of his ears.
"Oh nothing. Just muttering, that's all." Matt said flatly. "So, you live here by yourself?"
"Nah, got my sis here too." K said, looking at his watch. "She'll be home any minute."
"She cool?" Matt asked.
"She doesn't know about the nasty stuff, just that I hang out with shady guys like you."
"Aww, how sweet of you." Matt joked. "I'm sure your parents are proud."
K's mood seemed to hit rock bottom at the mention of his parents. Matt noticed this and remembered that he had a big mouth.
"Sorry, I didn't mean-"
"It's ok, just... don't talk about it, ok?"
"Sure."
Thankfully, the door opened, killing the awkward silence before it began. Through it came a young cow, with long ears and hair,
with a startling resemblance to K. Must be his sister. Matt thought.
She closed the door behind her and looked at the two.
"Hey sis." K said sweetly.
"Hey hey!" She looked over K at Matt in the sofa. "Who's...?"
"Oh, that's Matt." K said. "He's... Uhh..."
"I'd rather not know." She smiled and began heading for her room. "I'm gonna go to bed, so be a little quiet, all right?"
She slammed the door before either of them could answer.
Then came the awkward silence.
Matt mentally cursed at the silence winning again. You can never outsmart silence.
"What do you do?" K asked, sitting down again.
"Umm..." Matt replied. "You know what? It's late, I should be getting... home."
"Huh? All right, if you feel that way." K said. "See ya."
"Yeah." Matt finished, before closing the door behind him.
-
Two minutes afterward, Matt realized he had nowhere to sleep.
He walked aimlessly around in the streetlight-illuminated night. This made him feel a certain degree of familiarity, he knew he'd
walked around like this a lot before.
His head worked on sorting out the scattered remains of his memory, but nothing but a few words and pictures came up.
Most of these were too short or sublime to make sense. Some stuck out more than others, though. Especially one.
"Why does the word 'dead' keep coming back?" Matt thought aloud.
"'Cause I'm right behind you." A cold voice replied. Matt stopped for a second.
"You gonna try to rob me?" He asked without turning around.
"That, or you could just give us the money and save the effort."
"How many of you are there?"
"Three." Whoever it was answered.
"Since the rule of three applies here, it's just you." Matt stated. "Go away. I'm not in the mood for fighting."
Hopefully he would leave, if not... Do I know how to fight, anyway?
"Screw you! Die!" The man lunged with some sort of knife and hit Matt in the side.
"Ugh!" Matt fell down on his knees, holding his wound.
"Hell with the money, I'm just gonna kill you!" The ape, as it turned out to be, yelled and readied his weapon,
a formidable switchblade.
Just as he was about to strike again, Matt mule-kicked him in the place where it hurts the most.
The ape squealed and fell over while Matt got up.
"That's... what you get." Matt panted. Damn, he got me good.
Matt gave him a (not so)friendly kick in the face, planting the taste of his motorcycle boots in the ape's mind forever.
He picked up the switchblade and tucked it in his coat. This'll be useful. I think...
The pain was getting worse and now he was staggering along the sidewalk without a clue of where he was headed.
The headlights of a car shone in front of him and the car itself seemed familiar...
Pain making him slightly delirious, he thought the car was heading for him and jumped to the side.
He failed the landing, however, and fell face first into a wall.
"Oh god, are you all right?" A nervous someone asked behind him asked.
"I'm... fine. Just... a little... bruised." Matt tried, but seeing the blood on his coat he realized this wouldn't work out.
"We gotta get you to a hospital!" The cat, who looked strangely familiar as well said, grabbing a hold of Matt and ushering him towards the car.
Matt suddenly snapped to his senses.
"No! Not the hospital!" He yelled.
"What? Why not?! You're losing blood fast and-"
He was cut short by the feel of a knife against his throat.
"Drive... home." Matt limped.
The cat gulped. "A- alright."
Matt crashed into the backseat and didn't want to get up. The cat got in and began driving, a low, cozy tune filling the air.
The bat's eyes fell together and refused to open. The pain was easing up, but that was probably just the endorphins.
After near an eternity they pulled to a stop and Matt jolted awake.
"We're here. Can you walk?" The cat asked, helping Matt out of the vehicle.
"Yeah..." Matt said, stumbling onto his driver. "... No."
The cat grabbed him and began leading him through the big car park. The escalated a flight of stairs and stopped at a door.
"Ok, I'll go get the bandage. Lay down on the couch." He said and went off into the apartment.
Matt limped inside and found his way to a sofa. It was red and soft to the touch, not to mention inviting for someone to lie on it,
but Matt didn't want to stain it, so he let himself down on the coffee table instead.
It creaked painfully, but held up. The cat returned and helped Matt remove his coat and top. Both needed washing from the
blood that had stained them.
Matt looked at the cat as he was patching him together. What was so familiar about him?
"Hey..." Matt asked. The cat looked up at him.
Matt's eyes widened. The cat, he...
"It's HIM!"Matt screamed loudly, causing the poor guy to stumble backwards and flip over the couch.
"You, you're... The neighbor!" Matt exclaimed, pointing at him.
"Wh- what?" The cat asked, rubbing his sore head.
"Your car, your face... You haven't lived here for long, right?"
"Uh, five years?"
Matt felt dizzy. The world spun around as a part of his lost memory returned.
"Are you ok?" He asked worryingly. "Maybe I should call-"
"No, no problem." Matt slurred, making it sound like "Ngh, Nuh scbllm."
"Jus' needa sleep..." Matt continued, fainting onto the couch.
The cat stared at the sleeping bat for a while.
"What the heck is going on?" He rubbed his head again and thanked heaven he got the bleeding stopped. Imagine those stains!
--
Felicia yawned and stretched on her bed. Another day dawned outside her window and urged her to get up.
She didn't want to. At all.
Oh well, at least it's not school on Saturdays! She figured and rolled onto the floor.
After standing up, she headed down the stairs in search of Pepsi. She went over to the TV and grabbed to remote.
She flicked on a channel and sat down.
The sofa felt a little uncomfortable, but so does everything during the mornings. Then she noticed her hand was red.
Blood? But she couldn't remember getting a cut... Looking down, she saw that the remote was, along with the table,
hosting stains of dried blood.
Someone had tried to wipe it up, but hadn't gotten all of it, apparently.
The sofa groaned. Felicia slowly, so slowly looked at it and realized that she was sitting on a pile of half-naked bat
with a bandage.
She shrieked and jumped away, tipping the entire couch over while doing so. The bat shot to his feet with a frightened
look on his face.
"Dammit, woman! Are you trying to kill-" His face changed as he recognized her. "Oh. It's... you."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Felicia asked, more scared than angry. Matt shrugged.
"I think your dad helped me. See?" Matt pointed at the bandage striped across his torso.
"My dad? You mean Dewie?"
"Yeah, probably. A cat."
Felicia nodded and looked down. Silence.
"The hospital people were looking for you."
"I know. I kinda... ran off."
Felicia smiled. "So you wake up from a year long coma and the first thing you do is run away?"
"Yeah." Matt smirked.
"Hehe, cool." Felicia giggled.
Matt rubbed his head and looked away. A thought struck him.
"Wait, you said a year long coma?"
"Uh huh. That's what the nurse told me."
"But... I've been out for five years..." Matt scratched his chin, feeling an amount of beard on it that he swore he couldn't remember having.
"Gee, that's a long time to be gone..." Felicia agreed. "But where were you?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out... That and who I am..." Matt stated solemnly.
"You can't remember who you are?" Felicia's eyes widened.
"Well, no..."
She giggled childishly. "This is far out, man!"
"Excuse me?"
"Can I help you? You know, like a team!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down! I've just met you."
"Please? I swear I'll be helpful!" She tried.
"No." Matt said flatly, extinguishing the flare in her eyes. This conversation gave Matt that feeling of recalling something again...
"Pretty please?"
Matt sighed. "I... don't know. It just feels weird."
Felicia lowered her ears. Matt looked at her and felt guilty.
He sighed again, this time heavier.
"All right..."
"YES!" She yelled, jumping into the air. "Where do we start?"
"Well... Ahh..." They both got quiet and thought.
"Name?" Matt asked. "I'm Matt... I think."
"Felicia McDougal." She said, shaking his hand and remembering a certain thing.
"Oh yeah." She continued. "Before you woke up, you kept saying somebody's name... Rouge?"
The word caused Matt's eyes to black out for a second. He fell to his knees and grabbed his head. Felicia rushed over to him.
"Damn... I can't... remember..." Matt grunted.
"Hey, don't pass out on me!" Felicia said, heading towards him.
"Why do I remember her so strongly? She and I..." Matt stood up.
A voice came from across the hall.
"Felicia? Are you up?"
"We're here, Dewie." Felicia replied, standing up as well.
"Oh, here you- Aw, Felicia! Put some clothes on!" Dewie covered his eyes and looked away.
She looked down and saw she was only wearing her tiny KISS t-shirt and male underwear. Matt must've realized this just now as well,
as he had turned away and was chuckling slightly.
"Screw you guys." She sighed and went up the stairs.
Matt went over to the couch and picked up his clothing before thanking Dewie.
"What, leaving already?" Dewie asked.
"I did threaten you to death yesterday, you know. Maybe we'll meet again, hopefully under different circumstances." Matt said.
"Now if you excuse me, I have a certain someone to track down."
Dewie nodded and watched Matt leave. Just as Dewie closed the door behind him, Felicia came down the stairs.
"I can't believe you- Hey, where's Matt?" She asked.
"Hmm? Oh, he left just a while ago. Said he had to find someone-" Before he could finish the sentence, Felicia had thrown her shoes on and gone out the door.
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NOTES:
I like this story. I can take it anywhere I want ;)
Please read and review for your own best, people!
Or I'll hunt you down and make helium out of you. So be it.'
Seriously. Review.
/Matti